I Became a Veteran Heroine in a Harem Story

Long after sunset, the calamity that suddenly struck the peaceful city did not discriminate between people.

Whether city residents or academy students out on a trip, the magical beasts continued their attacks indiscriminately, and the best option for those who couldn’t handle them was to flee.

Some were able to save their lives by meeting saviors like Erich’s group, but since this place was firmly believed to be a safe zone, many more were not so fortunate.

“Isabel, run quickly!”

“Wa-wait a moment! Look over there, people are trapped.”

Amidst all this, Isabel, who was fleeing blindly with her friend Sophia, stopped in her tracks when she noticed people crying out from the windows of a three-story building.

Unlike others, these people shouting for help were isolated in the building and unable to escape, and they included people of all ages and genders.

The first-floor door was locked, but kobolds who had already targeted them were in the process of breaking it down.

If they left now, those people would be mercilessly slaughtered inside the building.

“B-but we have no way to help. We don’t have anything, and we can’t fight those monsters.”

Flustered, Sophia pulled her arm. Sophia wasn’t wrong. What they could do now was limited, and the enemies were strong.

Unless they could climb the wall and get people out one by one, they would need to kill the kobolds attacking the entrance to save those people.

Unable to deny this fact, Isabel stopped in her tracks out of responsibility and sense of justice, but she couldn’t bring herself to help them. How could someone who had barely passed the most basic physical fitness test possibly capture those evil and ferocious magical beasts?

‘Yes, I…’

The resolve she had firmly made when passing the physical fitness test wavered, and her characteristic weakness began to resurface.

The rationalization that what suited her was running and hiding, not fighting at the forefront, began to sound in her mind again.

“Over there! It’s them!”

“Isabel! It’s the city guard and… Magic Knights!”

That’s when they appeared. Guards armed with guns and a young man leading them.

Appearing to have rushed here, wearing only a coat over his pajamas, he was not a student like them but a knight officially appointed to the city.

“Thank goodness… the knight is taking down the monsters.”

Sophia, brightening up, pointed at the knight and guards attacking the kobolds with a sigh of relief.

Bullets brought down the monsters, and the knight’s sword, infused with mana, easily subdued attacking kobolds.

Seeing this, not only they but all the people around cheered with joy. The very image of a hero saving people in a moment of crisis—Isabel’s heart was pounding just watching it.

“Oh no, more of them have appeared.”

“Sophia! Let’s help too.”

The hope brought by the knight moved their hearts, which had shrunk in fear and been intimidated. Isabel suggested that they quickly evacuate people while the knight was fighting the enemies.

“Let’s go.”

Suppressing their pounding hearts, they hurried to clear away the broken debris, opened the door, and helped the trapped people escape outside.

“Hurry and take shelter! It’s dangerous here!”

“Thank you… thank you…”

The isolated people poured out in response to the two girls’ active guidance. With a reliable active-duty knight present, they could all retreat to a safe place together, and everything would turn out fine.

‘What a relief.’

Without any variables, if things continued like this… Isabel let out a small sigh without realizing it, having successfully rescued the people.

“Im-impossible. How could a minotaur…”

However, another enemy that appeared after hearing the kobolds’ cries was a variable in itself.

A formidable enemy that shocked even the active-duty knight. Isabel turned her head and froze with her eyes wide open.

“Aaaaargh!”

With a rough swing of its huge spear, the sword and arm that tried to block it were broken, and a powerful kick from its hooved foot caused the upper body to explode, spraying a fountain of blood and flesh.

The end of the reliable knight who had rushed to become their hope was that miserable and empty.

“Sh-shoot! Quickly!”

The guards fired their guns frantically, but small-caliber magic bullets couldn’t even scratch the body of a high-level magical beast. The spear swung like a broom also annihilated the guards, and now there was no one who could protect and stand between them and the minotaur.

“R-run.”

“—!!!!”

Isabel managed to utter a single word with her stiffened body.

Simultaneously, the minotaur who let out a roar held its spear at an angle and charged to kill them.

* * *C

‘Over there.’

In the city that had become a pandemonium, I decided to focus on one thing to prevent greater damage. Thanks to the minotaur’s roar, I was able to pinpoint its location and rushed there without hesitation.

“…”

In that brief moment, I saw and heard too much. The screams of people, the beast-like roars of the enemies, the bodies strewn on the ground.

For the first time in a long while since opening my eyes to a new world with a new body, I smelled the all-too-familiar scent of the battlefield.

My senses and soul, which couldn’t easily forget and were still attuned to those times, found stability and naturalness as this hellish scene unfolded.

“You…”

And finally, I caught up with the monster from behind. A creature that was 3 meters tall, with a powerful body that was a monster in itself.

Others must have all evacuated, as the street in the old district was quite quiet, with numerous corpses of people bleeding fresh blood at the monster’s feet, having just died.

‘No way.’

But what caught my eye now wasn’t the monster. That’s because I could see familiar uniforms among the bodies strewn on the ground, consisting of residents and guards.

Black pigtails and a red bob-cut, both lying with their heads in pools of blood. They appeared more intact than others who were shattered or had parts severed and crushed, but they showed no movement despite facing an enemy right in front of them.

‘It’s the two of them.’

My heart sank without me realizing it. Seeing people I knew dead was something I could never get used to, even after seeing it dozens or hundreds of times.

“—.”

As I stood there frozen, the minotaur turned around and grinned.

It clearly mistook me for being paralyzed with fear of a high-level magical beast like itself, just like the others.

“Arrogant beast.”

My heart quivered. My voice trembled involuntarily, and my eyes tensed up.

It was anger that moved me. The current situation was certainly enough to exceed the threshold of my heightened emotions.

“—!”

I charged at the monster first. It seemed surprised that I attacked first, and hurriedly swung its spear with mana swirling around it.

“You think you can win in a contest of strength. You’re right.”

I smirked at that. The monster’s strength is certainly greater than mine now. There’s a huge difference in the output of mana as a driving force.

But output was never everything.

“—?!”

My spear, swung to meet his, collided with his spear but deflected it and spun around. Thanks to this, my body remained unharmed while the force exerted by the monster was dispersed into the air.

This was a technique I had developed by modifying the Adenberg Spear Technique from the memories I had inherited after awakening in this body, using my experience.

My experiences and life, honed to fight equally with overwhelmingly powerful opponents, were the materials for this.

“There wasn’t something like this in this world, was there?”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I swung my recovered spear at the monster’s body, which showed widened eyes in apparent shock.

It would certainly not be an easy fight, and perhaps I would have to risk my life, but this would be a good testing ground for me.

* * *

“What an absurd situation. What exactly is the city guard doing? Why is the response so delayed?”

“B-but who would have thought such a thing would happen inside this city, a safety zone…”

“Spare me the excuses. With a minotaur appearing, we can’t leave this to the guard.”

He ignored the administrator who was just stamping his feet anxiously and drew out his weapon, a bow. In fact, he wasn’t affiliated with the city guard, nor was he even a native of this city. He had just come here on vacation.

But with people dying and the guard failing to function properly according to regulations, as a Magic Knight, he couldn’t ignore this situation.

“Damn it.”

“Still, it’s fortunate. With a high knight stepping in to catch a high-level magical beast, we can hold out. If it weren’t for Sir Reagan, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything until support from high knights from other cities arrived.”

One of the subordinate administrators tactlessly scratched at the administrator’s concerns, who had slumped down thinking he couldn’t avoid punishment after this was over.

As he said, the man who had just been leisurely drinking tea with the administrator was a powerful figure bearing the title of high knight, given only to the exceptional among Magic Knights.

Everyone was shocked by the news of the minotaur, a powerful enemy that should never be here, but the administrator, like others, thought that if it was that man, they could manage the situation.

“I’m, I’m finished. Finished…”

The administrator lowered his head as he continued to hear reports coming in one after another.

Most of the news was about how many people had died where, and how many enemies had been captured.

While the kobolds who had been indiscriminately killing people while scattered were being somewhat dealt with thanks to the belatedly mobilized city guard, it would be meaningless if they couldn’t catch the minotaur.